View from the hammock

As I lay in the hammock this past weekend at my in-laws’, relaxing on a nice visit for the weekend, I realized the summer is almost over.

I couldn’t help but think about the big to-do list that I have every summer - read this book, look at that website, research this strategy, modify that lesson, and so on. Educators are always on - trying to figure out the best ways we can improve our classrooms, manage a school, and help students. Try as we might, we cannot fit all of our work into the normal 8:00-4:00, five days a week that we are given at school. We know this and our friends and family know this. That being said and knowing that we do our best every day, I do have a bone to pick with YOU, Mr. Citizen (any random non-school employed individual), about my least favorite phrase that we educators never fail to hear. In order to air my grievance and help you understand, the following letter is addressed to you.

Dear John Q. Public,

“Oh, you work at the school. It must be nice to have weekends and summers off!” Oh, how we love to hate that phrase. On behalf of teachers, administrators, food service workers, counselors, custodians, maintenance workers, transportation drivers, HR personnel, district office staff, and anyone everywhere who works at a school, I would like to take a moment to politely request that you all stop using those words. Frankly, they are insulting and we are really quite tired of hearing them.

As educators (this includes everyone on that list above), we are hard at work every day of the week (yes, weekends, too) throughout the school year, and we do actually work during the summer months as well. We dedicate ourselves to educating your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors and friends’ kids in a safe, happy, and clean environment with the intent of helping them to become successful. To illustrate this point, below are just a few of the MANY things that educators use their summer months to accomplish, as told through their eyes **:

I am the teacher who finally has a chance to read those new professional books that I have been looking forward to but haven’t had the time because I also coach three sports and am in charge of the school plays.

I am the educator who has the chance to attend a long weekend of professional classes on new ways to educate your child. The school year doesn’t allow much time for this. Oh, by the way, this is all done on my own dime.

I am the teacher that takes part of my summer to lead a group of students on a trip that they will remember for the rest of their lives. In the past I have taken them to Washington D.C., Gettysburg, New York, Italy, Japan, Germany and England. The students will forever be grateful for these opportunities and for that I am happy.

I am the teacher-coach that oversees voluntary summer gym hours to help student athletes achieve at their best. I also take these young men and women to camps and clinics in order to help them hone their skills. I care about winning but I am most excited when I see my athletes perform at their best in every contest, improve and learn valuable team-building and leadership skills. That takes much prep and practice.

I am the teacher that spends countless summer hours re-tooling curriculum and lessons to better suit the changing needs of my students for this upcoming year. I do this every summer.

I am the brand-new teacher who is spending my summer planning my curriculum, new rules for the first day and fighting nerves, hoping that I will be able to help my new students learn. By the way – I won’t receive my first paycheck until the end of September.

I am the building principal who spends my summer planning for next year, reading new state laws and BOE policies, adjusting the schedule as needed, meeting with and helping to train new teachers, and figuring out how to build positive relationships with parents and the community.

I am the art teacher who spends my summer drawing, painting, sketching and creating models so that my students can have examples for what their work should strive to be. Art is beautiful and it takes a creative eye to help build confident student artists.

I am the language arts teacher (with a Master’s degree in reading, no less) that spends my summer reading young adult literature so that I can find books to use that my students will like and ways to help me engage them in the art of becoming an open-minded, literate person.

I am the athletic director who is busy scheduling and re-scheduling next year’s games and contests for all of the sports in my middle school and high school. I am also in charge of scheduling all other activities as well. I get one period per day to do this (which is never enough). My phone is on 24-7, and I check my
e-mail religiously ALL YEAR LONG.

I am the elementary teacher whose entire month of June consisted of reading children’s poetry in an attempt to better comprehend how to help my students understand poetry.

I am the superintendent who has spent many days calling our insurance provider and many nights awake trying to figure out how to deal a school building that has a collapsed roof and who hopes that it can get be fixed before the school year begins. I am also the secondary principal and transportation director.

I am the teacher who dedicates weeks to teaching summer school to help our struggling students learn to read, write and understand their basic math skills.

I am the maintenance staff member who volunteered to drive to another town to pick up used lockers to install in our school. Our lockers did not fit the current needs of our students. Also, I did this on a Sunday afternoon.

I am the custodian that cleans and repairs the buildings, oftentimes working far past when I should because I believe in a safe and clean learning environment. I am also the one who meets the guy from the security company to let him in the building to install new alarms. I do this on my Saturdays because I believe in a safe school.

I am the food service director that spends my summer planning next year’s menus, ordering high-quality, healthy food (that’s right – fruits and vegetables) and tries to balance an (often very thin) budget to feed kids on. I also coordinate a summer meal program for some of our students. I know that this is important because that will be the only one or two meals a day that some students eat.

I am the educator who makes a point to visit the local county fair every year to see my students’ projects. My wife and I do not have children of our own. I do this because these things are important to the students and I know that creating a positive relationship with them is the first step toward their success in school.

I am the teacher who spent half of his summer stumping for education by promoting the ballot Initiative for Colorado education funding (read more here). I believe in this because it is the right time to make the right investment.

Educators work hard, on the clock and off, weekends and summers all year long. We are compensated for the things we should do and the things that also know we MUST do. Although we may NOT be most overworked people in the world, we are dedicated to your students and to our schools. Their success means everything. We care for our students, support their learning and only want what is best for them. This is a full-time job but one that we take very seriously. This often means time away from our own friends and family, working on our own vacations (yes, some of us buy books for our classroom or take pictures of old volcanoes while on vacation) or ignoring those to-do lists at our own homes.

Summertime offers us the chance to catch up on our to-do lists, see our friends and family and even put our feet up in the hammock. While we don’t all have to work in the summer, we do. And we are glad for the difference it makes. Please remember that it takes many wonderful, devoted, talented, and special people to make our schools and your students successful. But again, I also ask you to please refrain from using that ridiculous phrase. Because even though we may not be in our classrooms or office, we are working. We work hard because we care and because it makes the difference.

Thank you kindly.

Sincerely,

Educators Everywhere

** The above “stories” do not necessarily represent one individual. These experiences are based on real-people – friends and colleagues that I have had the pleasure of working with or meeting.